taste your beating heart
by thelightningstrike
Summary: A drabble/ficlet collection including some of the greatest, most tragic or most perfect pairings in the world of Harry Potter. Now KingsleyEmmeline: She's a pretty thing, Emmeline Vance.
1. Sirius & Emmeline

**A/N: **Well, I'm starting something new again. It seems like it's the only thing I'm good at, haha.

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**taste your beating heart**

_pairing: Sirius Black & Emmeline Vance  
rating: K+_

It pains you to see her cry now. When she cried over her dog in third year you laughed, when she cried over a bad grade in fourth year you sneered, and when she broke up with Peter in fifth year you just didn't care.

And now she's crying for the first time since you started your tangled (_whatever it is- not _love, _surely_) because her brother is dead. And you can't comfort her because you've proved so many times that her tears provoke no reaction in you. She'll think you're just trying to be nice, and you both hate that. Maybe that's why you work so well together, because you don't have to be nice to each other.

She cries and you leave, because it's what both of you expect you to do.


	2. Draco & Astoria

**A/N:** I know I literally just posted a chapter to this but I had sudden inspiration, and seeing as these are my OTP, I had to write it.

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**taste your beating heart**

_pairing: Draco Malfoy & Astoria Greengrass  
rating: K+_

"It's not what you think." Draco says from his bed in the Hospital Wing. He is covered in thick bandages due to Potter's idiotic choice of spell and he doesn't want to be made a fool of anymore than he already has. There's already enough rumours going round, and the worst of them, that Potter completely mutilated him, don't need any more ammunition.

"Isn't that line usually reserved for bad Muggle movies?" Astoria grins as she closes the curtains around the bed.

Draco looks away, slightly surprised by Astoria's ready wit, as the last time he spoke to her (one of the only times, actually) was at the Greengrass Annual Christmas Party two years ago, and from what he could recall of her he'd thought she didn't even have a tongue, let alone a sharp one.

"So did Potter really do all this to you with one spell?" she asks with morbid curiosity.

"It's nothing. He couldn't harm me if he tried," he says, trying to get his superior tone back.

Astoria chooses just this moment to stumble over a chair in her eagerness to get a closer look at his injuries, and falls heavily against his chest, causing him to give a pathetic yelp of pain. "Sorry," Astoria says, but she doesn't look sorry at all.

"Shut up," he says, pushing her off him and shifting into a less painful position. "It was a lucky shot."

"Of course. I completely understand," she says, smiling. "Well, I'd better be off."

"You're going?" Draco blurts as she turns and practically skips to the curtain.

She looks back at him for a moment, her hand clenching around the curtain, a trace of a smile on her face, and for a split second, if she wasn't so annoying, Draco thinks he might find her pretty. "Yes," she says, and then winks- "but I'll be back."


	3. Sirius & Lily

**A/N: **Ah, angsty Sirius/Lily goodness.

**

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****taste your beating heart**

_pairing: _Sirius Black & Lily Evans  
_rating: _K+

A sudden pop startles Lily as Sirius appears in front of her, a cheeky grin on his face. "Flowers for the lady?" Sirius bows low, a bouquet of blooming red roses held aloft in his hand.

Lily frowns up at him, her face slightly softening when she sees the wonderful flowers. They completely overshadow the limp posy on the table in front of her that James brought over for her just two hours ago. They left Hogwarts just a week ago and she's been staying at her parent's until she and James can find a flat.

"Are you going to take them or shall I just arrange them along with those from the rest of your admirers?" Sirius says, and places them next to the posy. "Are these from James?"

"Yes," she says stiffly, and stands up. "Sirius- my parents will be home soon and you know what they're like about you being here when they're not."

"I certainly do. I never did understand why they fell for James' goofiness over my charm. I mean look at our flower choices- it tells a lot about a man, you know."

Lily laughs, but it is without humour. "Sirius- you need to go."

"Why did you choose him over me?" he asks abruptly, catching her hand.

Lily pulls her hand away and follows it with her eyes. "Sirius..."

"I know. You don't want to talk about it. You didn't choose him, it just happened, blah blah _blah_. I've heard it all before, Lil'." He walks to her and takes her shoulders in his hands so that she is forced to look at him. He is surprised to see traces of tears welling up in her eyes.

"Then don't ask if you know the answers already, smartarse." She walks swiftly past him to open the living room door, holding it open for him, all traces of sadness gone and the cold front returned. "Are you going to leave, or not?"

"You shouldn't give me the bloody choice, Lily, I would have thought you of all people would know that."

"You shouldn't have given me one either, then." She is defiant, suddenly, blazing like she used to be when he first fell for her.

He shakes his head. "Perhaps you're right. I should have forced you into being with me, should I?"

"You know that's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean, Lily? Will you ever just make it clear for me?"

She looks at the floor. "I don't know what I mean anymore, Sirius. It's just, James proposed, and..."

"What!? He proposed? When?" He suddenly notices the little golden ring on her wedding finger, a glittering emerald set in it. "Impeccable taste as usual," he says bitterly. "I suppose he told you that your eyes are the colour of the bloody emerald."

Lily stares hard at the ring, twisting it round and round her delicate finger. "I love him," she whispers.

"Bloody hell. He actually did, didn't he?"

"Sirius, you need to leave."

Sirius runs to her and encircles her arms round her waist so fast that she has to put her hands against his chest. He leans forward, resisting, and presses his forehead to hers. "Tell me you want me to leave. Tell me you don't love me."

Lily's breath quickens and she tries to tear her eyes away from his, but it's impossible. "I..." she says, and almost chokes on the hard feeling that's beginning in her throat, the feeling that matches the tears welling in her eyes. "I-"

Sirius exhales. "Okay. That's fine. Now tell me that you want me to stay. Tell me... that you love me."

His face is eager and Lily's heart is breaking, and for a moment, she is agonised between what she should and shouldn't say. Then her strong Lily defiance returns and she wrenches herself away from him, twirling out of his grasp.

He stands, his arms still mournfully missing her presence.

"You should go," she says, avoiding his eyes.

Sirius closes his eyes and his hands form tight fists. They both stand stock still, scared of the silence.

Suddenly they hear the sound of a key turning in the lock and Sirius catches Lily's eye as he raises his wand to apparate. In that moment before he disappears, their eyes remain locked on each other. "_I'll try to stop loving you_," Sirius' eyes say.

Lily's read similar. "_I'll try too_."


	4. Terry & Padma

**taste your beating heart**

_pairing: _Terry Boot & Padma Patil  
_rating: _K+

Her bracelets jangle the first time you kiss her, as she lifts her hands to twist her slender fingers in your hair and then as she suddenly stops and quickly jogs away. You stand still, completely bemused, the sound of jingling bracelets ringing in your ears.

Her bracelets jangle as she fights, and your ears can hear only that, the jangling. She becomes your centre of gravity, somehow- and you don't really care how, because if you had been pulled to her thirty seconds later your _Protego! _would have been tragically unnecessary.

After the war she gives the bracelets away. You don't speak of them for years until one day when she rattles the bead curtain of your child's bedroom and you remember them in an instant. You ask her why she gave them away and she smiles at you lovingly. She tells you that the day she gave them away was the day she realised that they were no longer her lucky charm, but you were.


	5. Kingsley & Emmeline

**taste your beating heart**

_pairing: Kingsley Shacklebolt & Emmeline Vance  
rating: K+_

She's a pretty thing, Emmeline Vance, and he isn't the first to notice it. Her slim frame and hazelnut coloured hair have certainly caught the eyes of all the young unmarried members of the Order, and while Kingsley appreciates these things, it's her voice that captures him. Used rarely it has considerable gravity and when she talks- everyone around her listens. Or at least he knows _he_ does- he doesn't pay much attention to anyone else when he's in her company.

He doesn't want to ask her out because striking up something in a war isn't good for anyone. He holds on to this excuse all through the first war and when it's over, and the tears have dried and the funerals have been attended and everyone's slowly getting back to normal, he still clings to it. _She's still getting back to normal. She wouldn't be ready..._

He still bumps into her now and again. She always seems delighted to see him and they have long talks about the Order and the people that were in it- the good old days. His new excuse is that she's obviously very happy to be single. _Maybe she needs some breathing space._

Suddenly the Order is forming again, and they're spending more and more time together, and he's falling for her so hard all over again. And all over again there's the excuse- they can't strike up something in the middle of a war. Especially when they're relying on teenagers, and when they're aren't as many of them as last time, and the corruption is leaking into the Ministry itself. _She wouldn't have time._

The day she's murdered he's supposed to be meeting up with her to discuss a theory Dumbledore came up with. She's always been the one to help him get his head around what Dumbledore's trying to say, and the irony is Dumbledore's the one that let's him know she's dead. The pain of her death and of having not told her that he loved her is ceaseless. For days he cannot think, he cannot do anything but continue robotically with his daily tasks. His excuses not to tell her, finally, have come to a halt- but it is not the halt he had longed for. He is left with one, awful excuse that will last the rest of his life. _Emmeline is dead._


End file.
